Donkeyboy (occasionally stylised as donkeyboy) is a

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

band from

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken (county), Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and village ...

, Norway, formed in 2005. The band consists of Cato Sundberg (

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

), Kent Sundberg (

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

), Peter Michelsen (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, backing vocals) and Thomas Drabløs (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

)

History

Donkeyboy were signed to

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

after an employee came across their music on MySpace. Their debut single, " Ambitions" was released on 26 March 2009 and was put into

heavy rotation In broadcasting, rotation is the repeated airing of a limited playlist of songs on a radio station or satellite radio channel, or music videos on a TV network. They are usually in a different order each time. However, they are not completely sh ...

NRK P3 NRK P3 is a nationwide digital radio channel operated by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). It was established as NRK's third radio channel in 1993, and was the result of the NRK radio channel reform initiated in 1992 by radio dire ...

. The song's chorus is built around a bassline similar to those used on

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

's "

Billie Jean "Billie Jean" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson, released by Epic Records on January 2, 1983, as the second single from his sixth studio album, '' Thriller'' (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Jackson and ...

" and some of

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

's 1980s songs. The song features

guest vocals In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other ...

Linnea Dale Linnea Dale (born 22 April 1991) is a Norway, Norwegian singer. Early life Linnea Dale was born in Tinn, Telemark, Norway. She attended the high school Skien videregående skole. ''Idol'' She was a contestant on the fifth season of the Idol (Nor ...

. "Ambitions" debuted on the

Norwegian singles chart VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart. It is presented weekly in the newspaper '' VG''. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continents around the world. The data are collected by Nie ...

at number seven on 6 April 2009, and reached the number one spot on 29 June, after 13 weeks on the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

. "Ambitions" remained at the number one spot for 12 consecutive weeks, before being replaced by the band's second single " Sometimes" on September 22. This was the first time ever for a Norwegian artist to occupy the top two spots on the singles chart. Guitarist Peter Michelsen described the situation as "completely absurd". Donkeyboy's debut album ''

Caught in a Life ''Caught in a Life'' is Norwegian band Donkeyboy's debut album from October 2009. It was produced by Simen M Eriksrud and Espen Berg at Livingroom Studios, Oslo. It topped the Norwegian Albums Chart in the winter of 2009. It was released on 19 O ...

'' was released on 19 October 2009. It was produced by Simen & Espen at Livingroom Studios in Oslo. Sven Ove Bakke of ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newsp ...

'' gave the album four out of six, and described it as "revolving around its already established hits with a combination of self-assured conviction and uneasy duteousness." He concluded that the album was overshadowed by its hit single. The band supported fellow Norwegians

a-ha A-ha (usually stylised as ''a-''h''a''; ) is a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars and vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars and vocals), and Morten Harket (lead vocals), the band ...

in the UK and Oslo legs of their ''

Foot of the Mountain ''Foot of the Mountain'' is the ninth studio album by the Norwegian pop rock band A-ha. It was released on 19 June 2009 and reached No. 1 on the Media Control Charts, German Albums Chart and No. 2 on the VG-lista, Norwegian Albums Chart. In its f ...

'' tour in November 2009, and in 2011 Donkeyboy won a

European Border Breakers Award The European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) was an annual prize awarded to recognise the success of ten emerging artists or groups who reached audiences outside their own countries with their first internationally released album in the past year. ...

for their international success."Winners of the 2011 European Border Breakers Awards"
ec.europa.eu. Retrieved February 20, 2012 Donkeyboy's second album Silver Moon was released on March 2, 2012, and in 2013 they released the single " Triggerfinger" featuring vocals by

Kiesza Kiesa Rae Ellestad (born January 16, 1989), known professionally as Kiesza ( ), is a Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist from Calgary. In 2017, she was involved in a car accident in Toronto, suffering severe injuries that required her to ...

Honours

*2009: Three times

Spellemannprisen Spellemannprisen, often referred to as the Norwegian Grammy Awards in English, is a Norwegian music award presented to Norwegian musicians. The award was established by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organizati ...

in the categories this year's Hit song, Newcomer and Musical video, for the album ''Caught in a Life'' and the tune/video "Ambitions"

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

* {{Authority control Norwegian pop music groups Spellemannprisen winners Musical groups established in 2005 2005 establishments in Norway Musical groups from Drammen